Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1, Part 130

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1336

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1 > Part 130

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Ezra Rosbrook was born in Norwich, N. Y., where his boyhood was spent. He followed farm- ing for a time, and also the trade of carpenter and joiner, but later became interested in lumbering, and ran one of the first sawmills. in that part of the State. He then removed to Onondaga county, where he operated a sawmill, and for some time resided in Northampton, Mass., near the French colony. While there he ran a sawmill and was employed in a silk mill, and being a natural machin- ist he brought many new ideas to bear in the run- ring of the latter. His last years were spent in Wisconsin, and he and his wife are buried there. They had seven children, of whom our subject's father, Charles A., was the eldest; Julia Ann mar- ried Julius Dunham, who died shortly after mar- riage ; Louise first married a Mr. Prindall, of East Hampton, Conn., and her second husband was a fruit grower in California; Francis, a mechanic in East Hampton, married a resident of that town; Emeline married Mr. Axdell, a blacksmith at Portland, Conn .; Sarah Jane married Mr. Flint, a farmer and miller in Wisconsin; John Milton mar- ried and settled in Hoosick Falls, N. Y., and is now living in retirement, after spending many years as superintendent of the Walter A. Wood Machine Company.

Charles A. Rosbrook, our subject's father, was born March 9, 1820, in Oneida county, N. Y., but his boyhood was mainly spent in Cicero, Onondaga county. At the age of twenty he came to Con- necticut, and located in East Hampton, where he was employed for a year and a half. He then re- turned to Cicero for a period, and later came to Hartford, where he worked in various machine shops, including Colt's Armory and the Wood- worth & Beach machine shop. He was also em- ployed for a time in Portland, Conn., as engineer in the quarries, but at present he makes his home with our subject. On Nov. 21, 1847, he was mar- ried to Sarah Hodge, who was born Nov. 22, 1826, in East Glastonbury, and died April 30, 1861. She was a daughter of Noel Hodge, a farmer in Glaston- bury, and his wife, Rueba Brown. Of the children of this union, Julia, born Dec. 14, 1849, died Oct. 24. 1854; Helen M., born Aug. 18, 1851, died in childhood ; William R. was next in the order of birth ; Sarah F., deceased, was born Feb. 8, 1855, and married Charles Davis, of Boston, Mass. ; Fred, born Feb. II, 1860, married Eva Frask. and re- sides in East Hartford, being employed in the Will- iam Rogers plating factory in Hartford.

William R. Rosbrook was born April 2, 1853, in Portland, Conn., and received only a common- school education. His last teacher in the Glaston- bury high school was Mrs. McChesney. He lost his mother when he was only eight years old, and as his father was a poor man, he was com- pelled to make his own way through life from an early age. He worked on farms in summer, while attending school in winter, thus paying for his own education. Later he went to Stafford Springs, Conn., and began to learn the dyer's trade, but the acids used affected his health, and he was com- pelled to give up the work. In 1873 he came to Hartford, and found work with the Rogers Cutlery Co., and was with them when the name of the firm changed to the William Rogers Manufacturing Co. He remained with them for twenty years, and al- though he started at the bottom became one of their most valuable workmen. He resigned his position in 1899, and formed his present partner- ship with E. E. King, of East Hartford (a sketch of whom appears elsewhere), and they have built up a large and profitable trade.

In 1881 Mr. Rosbrook was married to Miss Phebe E. Hall, of North Coventry, Conn., daughter of Amasa Hall and his wife Eunice Greene, who is a descendant of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, of Revo- lutionary fame. They have had no children, but have adopted and reared several, being too sym- pathetic and generous to see a needy child go un- sheltered.

Politically Mr. Rosbrook is a Republican, and he takes an active interest in local affairs, being treasurer of the East Hartford fire district. He attends the Congregational Church, and is chan- cellor of Elm Lodge, K. P., of East Hartford, and charter member of same; senior deacon in Orient Lodge, No. 62, F. & A. M., of East Hartford; charter member of Sonquosaen Tribe, of Red Men, of Hartford, in which he filled the chair for five terms ; and charter member of a fraternal insurance society.

JOHN P. KENNEY, an industrious and strictly upright young farmer of Hockanum, was born in Norwich, this State, Feb. 3, 1866, and is a son of Rev. Pardon T. and Lemira A. (Porter) Kenney, the latter of whom was a member of a most highly- respected Connecticut family.

Phineas Kenney was a native of New Bedford, Mass., was married in that city, and had born to him three children: Lorenzo; Elizabeth; and Par- don T., the father of John P., whose name opens this sketch.

Rev. Pardon T. Kenney, a native of New Bed- ford, Mass., was born Sept. 5, 1810. He was reared a tailor, and for a short time was in business for himself, but his predilections were strongly toward theology. and he early attended the Wesleyan Acad- emy, at Wilbraham, Mass. On May 1I, 1830, he received an exhorter's license for the Fair Haven

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Circuit. In the fall of 1833 he entered the univer- sity at Middletown, and was a classmate of Rev. Abel Stevens, but asthmatic troubles compelled him to at once relinquish his studies for the coveted profession, though he resumed them later in the year. At the expiration of six months he removed to Worcester, Mass., and later was stationed at various places in New England. In 1842 he was sent on a mission to Key West, and was gone two years, returning via New Orleans and the Missis- sippi and Ohio rivers, and then overland to the Con- ference at Providence, R. I. From 1852 until 1855 he was presiding elder of the Sandwich district, and again from 1862 to 1865, and from 1866 until 1869 was presiding elder of the New London dis- tiict ; he then was placed in a supernumerary re- lation to the Conference, went to Nebraska City, Neb., where he established a school; he was there during the summer, and on his return, in the fall, while superintending the tearing down of a chimney at his wife's old home, was killed by its falling on him, Nov. II. 1869; his remains were interred at Hockanum.

Rev. Pardon T. Kenney was first united in mat- rimony to Bridget Dennison, a native of Mystic, Conn., and for his second helpmate Elder Kenney wedded Lemira A. Porter, a native of Hockanum, and a daughter of John and Anna ( Hills) Porter, natives of East Hartford. John Porter was a de- scendant of John and Rose Porter, who came over from Wraxhall, Warwickshire, England, in 1638, and settled in Windsor, Conn., in 1640. His wife was a descendant of one of the oldest families of the town of East Hartford. The children that blessed this union were John P., our subject, and Lemira A., who makes her home with him.

John P. Kenney was six weeks old when his parents moved to New London, where they lived nearly twelve months, then removed to Vernon, and there resided about three years; the mother then brought her children to Hockanum, there to make their home while the Elder was in Nebraska attending to his select school, and were here but a few months when the Elder came home, to meet his tragic fate but a few months later, our subject be- ing still quite young. The latter was reared under the fostering care of his mother (a most pious woman) until her death in March, 1872. He was then cared for by his aunt, his mother's sister, and received his preliminary education in the district school ; he next went to the Glastonbury Academy, and finished his education under Profs. Brewer and Bixler. He then assumed charge of his present farm of fifty acres, which was the homestead of his grandfather. Here he raises poultry, berries of all kinds, etc., but no tobacco. In politics he is a Pro- hibitionist, one of a few in East Hartford. He is a member of no secret society, but is one of the most active members of the Hockanum Methodist Epis- copal Church, and every act of his life gives evi- (lence of the sincerity of his belief in its discipline.

For so young a man he has held many church offices, some of them requiring much care and attention, and, indeed, arduous work, but he cheerfully gives his time to these duties ; among these offices have been or are those of superintendent of the Sunday- school, treasurer, recording steward, president of the Epworth League, and (now) secretary of the Norwich District Epworth League. Quiet, retir- ing, pious, and very industrious, he has won the respect of all who have a home in East Hartford.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CODAIR, a well- known stock raiser and general agriculturist of Rocky Hill, is an enterprising and successful busi- ness man, and has won by his sterling qualities of character the esteem of a large circle of friends.

Mr. Codair was born May 16, 1849, in Vermont, received a district-school education, and after reach- ing the age of fourteen attended school only in win- ter, the remainder of the year being spent in farm work. In 1874 he came to Connecticut, locating first at Griswoldville, Wethersfield, where he was employed by Stephen Morgan for two years at thirty dollars per month. He then entered the em- ploy of Comstock & Ferrie as a salesman, and for seven winters he traveled in their interest through New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and the New England States. In the meantime his sum- mers were devoted to farm work, and in 1880 he engaged in farming on his own account, renting a farm from Charles Dagle, of Rocky Hill. Two years later he purchased his present farm of one hundred acres, where he has since carried on gen- eral farming, market gardening and stock raising. He is fond of horses, and is considered a remark- ably good judge of their characteristics, having raised several blooded horses which brought him large prices and have made excellent records. In politics he is a Republican, but as a man of do- mestic tastes he has never cared for public life. So- cially he and his family are much respected, and they are identified with the Methodist Church at Rocky Hill. In 1880 Mr. Codair was married to Miss Edith L. Belden, a native of Rocky Hill, and a daughter of Francis Belden, a leading citizen. Three children blessed this union; Ernest, who was accidentally killed at the age of eleven years ; Gertrude and Alice. Mr. Codair's brother G. A. is a prominent resident of Canton, this county. -- -

CHARLES A. GILLIN, M. D. To any one familiar with the personnel of New Britain's med- ical profession the name of Dr. Gillin' will in- stantly occur. That elusive recognition which comes to some practitioners and is sought in vain or with scant success by others has been attained in generous measure by our subject, who enjoys one of the widest and most extensive practices in that portion of Hartford county in which he has located, and its magnitude is due solely to himself. Dr. Gillin was born in Kinston, N. C., June 13,

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1859, son of James Gillin, formerly a prominent manufacturer of saddlery. His great-grandfather Gillin, a native of the Highlands of Scotland, em- igrated to this country prior to the war of 1812, and participated in that conflict, but later returned to his native hills, and there died. His son, John Gillin, the Doctor's grandfather, was born in Scot- land, and came with his father to America, but when the latter returned John remained in this country. He was a soldier in the Civil war, and died from wounds received during his service. His son James, the father of our subject, was born in New York City March 27, 1827. He learned the saddler's business, and went South to take charge of the Southern interests of the firm of Dibble & Co., Mr. Dibble remaining in New York City. The firm acquired quite a property, but when the fires of secession burst forth in the South, James Gillin, who was a strong Union man, was obliged to flee from Kinston, N. C., to the North, escaping in a sloop, the last to clear for a Northern port before the breaking out of the war. All the prop- erty of James Gillin left in the South was con- fiscated by the Confederacy. For a time Mr. Gillin was in business with Mr. Pettelow, of Hartford. About 1863 he settled at Granby, and there fol- lowed his trade for years. In his early life his suc- cess in trade was marked. He married Salona Suffina Moody, a descendant of an English fam- ilv, of which the Russells of Springfield and Gil- bert Russell, the hardware manufacturer of Holyoke, are representatives. Mrs. Gillin was also related to the late Dwight Moody, the evangelist, of North- field, Mass. The only child of James and Salona Gillin is Charles A., the subject of this sketch. James Gillin is still a resident of Granby. He is a prominent Mason, has been secretary of the lodge at Granby for many years, and is also a member of the chapter located there.

Charles A. Gillin was educated in the high school of Granby, which has turned out many students who later became prominent professionally. At the Granby high school he prepared to enter Yale Col- lege. In September, 1879, when about twenty years of age, he entered the Medical Department of the University of New York, and was graduated in March, 1883. While attending lectures he was a private pupil of Prof. Alfred L. Loomis, of New York, a specialist in the treatment of heart. lungs and kidneys. One of his classmates was the son of Dr. Loomis. After graduation Dr. Gillin en- tered a competitive examination for a position in the New Haven General Hospital, in competition with eight or ten young physicians from Yale and four from New York. He was the successful ap- olicant, and he spent the year 1883-84 in the New Haven Hospital. In May, 1884, Dr. Gillin opened an office at Berlin, Conn., and within a few months he was in command of a substantial practice, which has grown constantly until it is now one of the argest in that part of the county. In 1898, at the

request of many friends and acquaintances, he es- tablished an office at New Britain. His clientele is drawn from a region many miles in extent, many of his patients coming from Hartford and Bristol. Dr. Gillin is a member of the Hartford County Medical Society and of the State Medical Society. He is a prominent member of the Masonic Fra- ternity, and was the first member of Centennial Lodge, at New Britain, to join from Berlin. He is also a member of the O. U. A. M. He is a Republican, but not an active politician.

Dr. Gillin was married to Miss Grace Emma Atwater, of Berlin, and they have one son, Charles H., now thirteen years of age.

DWIGHT G. STOUGHTON, a well-known merchant of Hartford, was born in Vernon, Tolland Co., Conn., March 4, 1851, and is a representative of an old Colonial family.

Shem Stoughton, his great-grandfather, was born at East Windsor, Jan. 15, 1757, and died Feb. 5, 1837. For many years he kept a tavern at Wap- ping, this county, and during the Revolutionary war he served in Washington's army. In 1783 he married Flora Gillette.

Horace Stoughton, our subject's grandfather, was born June 9, 1784, and died May 27, 1875. in his ninety-first year. He conducted a country store in early life, and later engaged in farming at Wap- ping, where he was prominent in religious work as a deacon in the Congregational Church. On Dec. 12, 1815, he married Lavina Kilbourn, who was born Feb. 25, 1794, and died Feb. 4. 1875. They had nine children, as follows: Amanda, born July 4. 1818. was married, Jan. 13. 1841, to J. M. Tal- cott, and died July 5, 1869: Alfred, born April 5. 1819, died Nov. 21, 1819: Horace, born March 9, 1820, is yet living : Henrietta, born Sept. 14, 1821. was married, April 23. 1845, to S. B. Smith (now deceased ), formerly of New Haven, later of Cam- den, N. J .: George is mentioned below : Esther, born Jan. 3, 1825, died Nov. 5, 1826; Esther (2). born April 22, 1826, died Aug. 14, 1840; Samuel B., born Jan. 23, 1828, was a veteran of the Civil war, and died June 19, 1892; and Alonzo, born Nov. 21, 1829, is yet living.

George Stoughton, the father of our subject, was born at Wapping April 2, 1823, and died June 28. 1882. After securing a common-school edu- cation in the town of South Windsor he learned the wheelwright's trade, which he followed during the greater portion of his life at Vernon, Tolland county. On April 18, 1848, he married Nancy L .. McKinney, of Ellington, Conn., who died April 18. 1865. and on May 17, 1866, he married Elizabeth Knapp. By the first marriage there were four children : Eugene Austin, born May 30, 1849, died Sept. 1. 1887: Dwight George is mentioned more fully below : Nellie, born Jan. 1. 1854, married Wil- hur F. Buckland. of Wapping : James Talcott, born in November, 1861, died Sept. 3. 1878. By the

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second marriage there was one child, Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Aspinwall, and resides in Eng- land.

Our subject was educated in the schools of Ver- non, and his first employment was in a mill at Tal- cottville. When sixteen years old he went to Hart- ford to clerk in Goodwin's drug store, remaining until he reached his majority, and for a part of a year he was employed in Hegeman's drug store, in New York City. Later he spent a year in Wor- cester, Mass., in the wool business, also a few months in California, and on his return to Hartford he clerked for a short time in a drug store on State street. Desiring to engage in business for him- self, he formed a partnership with W. F. Frazier, corner of Front and State streets, and two years later he became the owner of that drug store, and another in Parkville which was established twenty years ago.

Mr. Stoughton was first married, in 1876, to Miss Louise E. Foote, of Lee, Mass., who died in 1889. On April 8, 1891, he married Mary A. White, daughter of John White, a highly esteemed citizen of Hartford, and two children have blessed the union: Dwight Harold, born Oct. 2, 1892, and Amanda Louise, born Dec. 1, 1897. Mr. Stoughton was at one time president of the State Pharmaceutical Association, and he has taken an active part in municipal affairs, serving as council- man from the Eighth ward, and alderman from the Tenth ward. He is popular socially, is a Scot- tish Rite Mason, and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

JOSEPH RICHARD FAY, a practical plumber, metal worker and contractor, who is now success- fully engaged in business in Southington, was born in Chicopee, Mass., Feb. 3. 1851, a son of William D. and Mary ( Kiernan) Fay, both natives of Ireland, the former born in Westmeath, the latter in Longford. For many years the father lived in Chicopee, where he was employed in the cotton mills, in 1859 removing to Willimantic, Conn., and in 1863 to Rockville, where his death occurred. Our subject's paternal grandfather was Patrick Fay, a pensioner of the British army, in which he served for eighteen years. He came to America many years ago, locating in Quebec, Canada, and subsequently removed to Thorndike, Mass., where he died at an advanced age. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Susan Bond, was a native of Devonshire, England.

Joseph R. Fay completed his literary education in the high school of Chicopee Falls, Mass., and on laying aside his text-books served a three-years' apprenticeship to the plumber's trade with Smith & White, of Hartford, Conn., after which he worked as a journeyman in the capital city for fifteen years. He was then employed on repairs for the Boston & Albany Railway Co., for two years, and in October, 1883, came to Southington, where he worked at his

trade for others for five years. In 1888 he em- barked in business on his own account, and now has a large and successful business as a contractor in Southington and surrounding towns.

In February, 1872, Mr. Fay married Miss Isabel, daughter of Hiram and Almira Tucker, of Will- iamsburg, Mass., and to them have been born six children : Frank L., Charles H., Annie, Joseph R., Jr., Nellie and William B. Mr. Fay is & prom- inent member of the Connecticut Association of Master Plumbers, and is a member of the legis- lative committee; he also belongs to the National Plumbers Association, and to Court Industry, F. of A., of Southington. Politically he casts his ballot with the Democratic party, has served as grand juror, and in 1898 was elected selectman in Southington, in which office he is now capably serv- ing, having been re-elected in 1899.

WILLIAM HOWARD WEBSTER. The Webster family is one of the most prominent and influential in Hartford county. For generations they have cultivated the soil, and through hard work and tireless energy members thereof have become among the county's largest land owners, William H. Webster paying a larger realty tax than any other resident of Berlin. It is of such men as these- earnest, industrious, persevering and upright-that Connecticut may justly be proud.

The first of the name of whom any authentic ac- count has come down to the present time was David Webster, who was born in 1721, and died in 1806, at the ripe old age of eighty-five. His wife, Zer- viah, passed away Jan. 17, 1786, aged fifty-seven years and one month. They had a son, David, Jr., who was a farmer, and settled in the Beckley Quarter, town of Berlin, before the departure there- from of the Mattabassett tribe of Indians. His first wife, Lydia, bore him two children : Mary, born Feb. 28, 1754, and David, born Feb. 5, 1757. She died April 13, 1761, and on Oct. 29, following, he for his second wife wedded Leviah Allis. The issue of this marriage, with the respective dates of birth of the children, was as follows: Hepzibalı, Nov. 3. 1763 ; Lydia, Sept. 28, 1765 ; John, April 7, 1768; and Selah, Sept. 20, 1770 (died Nov. 13, 1776). The town records of the latter half of the last century show that David Webster, Jr., the great-great- grandfather of William Howard and his brother Daniel, began to purchase land in Wethersfield as early as 1754. and that he subsequently bought in Newington and Berlin. Most of this property has descended, through inheritance, to the present gen- eration. In this connection the following summary of entries in the Wethersfield town records, show- ing the source and date of several transfers of par- cels of real estate to him, are of no small interest. On April 8, 1754, David, Jr., purchased two and one-half acres of land, with mansion house and baril standing thereon, from Mercy and Jemima Lamb, bound on the east and north by land belonging to

William H Matulão

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Gamaliel Boardman, on the west by land of Thomas Wright, and on the south by the highway. [ Vol. X, p. 275. ] On July 17, 1756, in consideration of fifty pounds, he acquired, from Sarah Boardman, title to one acre lying in Newington, bounded on the northi and east by land of the grantor, on the west by land already owned by David Webster, and on the south by the highway. [ Vol. X, p. 384.] On June 28, 1763, Elizur Steele conveyed to him, on payment of seventeen pounds, two acres out of the five-acre lot known as Beckley's farm. This piece was bounded by land of Lieut. Joseph Beckley, and on July 5, 1763, he bought from the same party another acre and a half from the same lot. On June II, 1764, he paid four pounds for a half-acre abutting on land belonging to the heirs of William or John Allis, the first-named of whom was the father of his second wife. On the same day he purchased from Josepli Andrews, Jr., and Asenath, his wife, for the sum of ten pounds, another acre abutting on land of Stephen Kellogg, bounded on the west by property of Stephen Willard, and on the east by the highway. On November 8, 1764, Samuel Wolcott and his wife Sarah executed a deed to him, conveying, for ninety pounds, twenty-five acres in Newington. A little more than four months later, March 27, 1865, on the payment of twenty pounds, he secured from Daniel Andrus, a grismill standing near the house of Ben- jamin Beckley, and on February 17, 1766, he con- veyed the same property to John Beckley, for the same consideration. On Nov. 8, 1764, he sold to Sherman Boardman, for seventy pounds, three and one-half acres in Newington, with house and barn. This was followed on Aug. 15, 1767, by a sale to Fitch Hurlbut, for seventeen pounds, of three- fourths of an acre abutting on the latter's property in Newington. On Dec. 28, 1769, he bought from Daniel Willis three acres of the Woodbridge farm in Newington, paying therefor the sum of eight pounds and two shillings. From this necessarily imperfect synopsis of the entries in the Wethersfield records it is apparent that David Webster had faith in the future of the realty in his locality, and that as hard-working farmer he bought and sold pieces of and as favorable opportunity offered and his means permitted. To the conduct of his business he seems o have brought the same keen sagacity, clear fore- ightedness, sound judgment and patient toil which lave characterized the Websters in all generations.

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Commemorative biographical record of Hartford County, Connecticut : containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, Pt 1, Part 130

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1336

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1336